Austin to Visit Other Worlds

New science fiction film festival plans a better tomorrow

Austin's calendar is already dripping with film festivals, from the fantastic to the erotic. Now a new strange fruit is bursting forth, with the announcement of the Other Worlds Austin science fiction festival.

Founded by former Austin Film Festival programming director Bears Fonté, this will be Austin's first festival dedicated to all matters SF. Fonté said, “With a team of programmers who love SciFi, write SciFi, or make SciFi films, we are in this for one reason only — to put on a great festival."

With dedicated genre festivals like Fantastic Fest and Housecore Horror, plus a strong sci-fi roster at AFF and SXSW, it may seem like Austin already has plenty of screening time for movies of the extraterrestrial or extra-human. However, Fonté argues that not only is there space for another festival, but there's a real need. “There are a ton of SciFi films out there, maybe they’ve played another festival, maybe they are a bit more indie, but right now those films have nowhere to play in Austin. I want to create an outlet for those films."

The plan is for a three day gathering, running Dec. 4-6, at the Galaxy Highland. Fonté plans to show more than 10 features (41 minutes or longer), plus many of the kind of challenging and fascinating sci-fi shorts that defined his tenure at AFF.

The festival is already taking submissions for the inaugural festival. Through Oct. 1, film makers can submit either via Without a Box or directly via the festival website. There will be an audience award of $500 at the end of the festival.